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The Mission and Vision

Our vision is that the Department will provide the best possible environment within which both staff and students can maximise their potential, for the benefit of South Africa, through sound and practical training in our disciplines, research and scholarship.

Our research and teaching capacity are determined by the collective capabilities of our staff, so the Department will strive continuously to improve the academic excellence of its staff resource. Our staff seek to strengthen each other, as much as possible, and foster synergy rather than competition as a style of working.

We recognise that students, of all levels, are the main reason for our existence, and that the quality of their experience is paramount.

We will provide enthusiastic and effective undergraduate teaching and encourage the best undergraduates to pursue postgraduate studies.

Our postgraduate students constitute the engine that drives our research life, so we provide them high-quality and effective supervision, in a stimulating academic environment.

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History of the DepartmentFrom 1840 to about 1865, "elementary geology" was one of the
eleven subjects taught by Mr. H. McLachlan at Stellenbosch school. As part of
the course on agriculture at the Victoria College (1887 – 1918), geology was
taught by Prof. Albrecht Fischer, and later by the famous botanist Dr Rudolf
Marloth. Read more ...